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Latest ethanol casualty: shrimp
July 23, 2007 - Exclusive By Dallas Kachan, Cleantech Group
It doesn't end with driving up the price of food (and beer).
The latest casualty of America's rush to corn-based ethanol appear to be shrimp and other marine life in the Gulf of Mexico.
The seasonal dead zone caused by nitrogen fertilizer runoff down the Mississippi from the American heartland has about doubled in size since scientists began studying it in 1985.
This year, with the amount of land put into corn production for ethanol, it's expected to be even worse, according to researchers.
The zone is expected to cover a record 8,543 square miles, or 22,126 square kilometers, this year and stretch into waters off Texas.
The number of shrimp fishermen licensed in Louisiana has declined 40 percent since 2001, because shrimp catches are down, according to state figures.
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Comments
Human Ethanol Casualties
Submitted on July 25th, 2007 by InterestedReaderIf you have a strong stomach and do not mind reading about humans that are treated like animals, stuffed with vitamens to enable them to work harder and then discarded as so much refuse in the production of the Brazil ethanol industry, then go to
http://www.worldpress.org/print_article.cfm?article_id=2994&dont=yes
It is slavery coming to life as it did hundreds of years ago but with a modern and viscious twist to it.
Shrimp and marine life are not the only creatures that are forced to suffer and die because of ethanol.
adrianakau2aol.com
ethanol, nitrogen pollution, labor abuse
Submitted on July 27th, 2007 by InterestedReader1. Laborers will be abused whenever they do not have alternatives. Ethanol has nothing to do with it.
2. Ethanol has little to do with nitrogen going down the Mississippi. It has been doing that for decades. We need a way to utilize the nitrogen rich water in local lakes here in the Midwest. Possibly algae farms to make biodiesel. Or a way to extract the nitrogen and sell it back to the farmers.
3. The corn or soybeans will be grown regardless of what anyone thinks. It is presently used primarily for animal feed. Not to feed people. It takes eight pounds of feed to produce one pound of flesh. I am no vegetarian, but too much flesh is not good for us. Obesity is a far greater problem than starvation worldwide. The highest bidder deserves the corn and soybeans. If the rich choose to buy it for the poor, that is good, so long as the population is controlled.
4. Cellulosic ethanol will eventually take over, and millions of acres of wasteland can be growing beautiful crops of mixed grasses, with winmills and solar panels interspersed.
All the best,
Ron Wagner
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